Be the Light
by seiliewichts
Summary: "You said not to hurry myself to death, now I will say the same thing to you." Tagged to Ep. 28/29.


**A/N: I found this old fic somewhere on my computer. I think I wrote this around the time I rewatched Rurouni Kenshin. So after tidying it up a bit, might as well publish it before I got chickened out again.**

**Disclaimer: I just feel like playing with other people's toys.**

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><p>"More light. I need more light," Megumi mumbled desperately.<p>

It was a late night. She could barely see the wound on the shoulder she was treating in the dim light of the room, and it frustrated her so much that she started to shout at Yahiko and Kaoru to bring her more light.

"I will save you," she whispered in a very low voice as she tried to stitch the deep once bloody gash. It was more for her own benefit, for her own reassurance, that she said those things, really. Because her patient couldn't hear her. Because Sanosuke was still very much unconscious.

Treating Sano's injury wasn't exactly a new experience. He was more or less a regular on Gensai Sensei's clinic because that man seemed unable to survive one day without wounding his body. But it was always a scratch here and there. Or a few broken fingers from bar fighting. The worst he ever had since she knew him was probably the injuries he got from fighting Ken-san for only the two of them knew the reason why.

Never like this, no.

What if she couldn't save him? The clicking sound from the melted candle sounded so loud in her ears.

What if she was too late to save him? Judging from the dried blood on his clothes, and on the dojo's floor when they found him, it had been hours since the fight happened.

Her hand began to shake. No. She couldn't think like that. Not right now. Sano needed her to focus and did what she did best. It was the only way she could help him. It was the only way she could save him. Just like he saved her that day in Kanryu's mansion.

She would never understand, at least not right now, why he went out of his way to stop her from going back to Kanryu. She was a stranger to him. _She was a killer_. She had killed his friends with her opium, regardless her reasons as a prisoner and all. And yet he came and told her not to hurry herself to death, when she thought maybe death is better than living with the guilt and the ghosts of the people she had killed. He came and gave her his arm to stop her from killing herself, when she thought that her death is a fair price in exchange of the life of hundreds of people that would die if she had stayed alive in Kanryu's captive.

What she did understand was that she couldn't let this man die before she repay her debt properly. For the new life he and his friends had given her. For thinking that she deserved that above all.

"You said not to hurry myself to death, now I will say the same thing to you," she whispered again as she made the final stitch. It didn't matter whether Yahiko or Kaoru heard what she was saying. It didn't matter what they might think of her after hearing it. Nothing mattered anymore except for this man to open his eyes and smile his trademark cocky grin.

Megumi could feel the numbness she felt from the second she saw Sanosuke lying unconscious on the dojo floor gradually vanishing. Now that the bleeding had stopped and the wound had been treated, all they could do was wait. Wait and hope and pray to whoever God listening that his fever would go down. She vaguely heard Kaoru's words that urged her to get some rest after the tiring work she had done.

"I'll look after him a little bit longer," she smiled faintly. It was a lie both Megumi and Kaoru knew. It wouldn't be just a little bit longer. She would look after him a whole night lot. She couldn't possibly go to sleep, no. Her eyes fell at the bandage on Sano's shoulder when she finally felt the sting in the back of her eyes. The tears that she had repressed from hours ago was about to burst in.

No, Megumi. Why do you have to cry at all? The one who's in so much pain right now is Sano.

The wind was blowing outside. It sounded so loud because everything else in the dojo was in silent. Kaoru might have gone to sleep, just like Yahiko, who insisted to watch Sano with her but now was falling asleep in the corner of the room. And Ken-san? Maybe the two of them were the only ones awake. Something was going on. She was sure. Something related to Ken-san's past.

A murmur distracted her wandering mind. Sanosuke's talking in his sleep.

She couldn't remember how long she was waiting beside his futon, watching him, checking his temperature for every hour or so. Morning apparently has come, because the dark room slowly filled with a yellow light, and she could feel the warmth of the sunshine caressing her back. Megumi stretched her hand to check on Sano's temperature again.

"His fever is going down," she said in relieve to the sleepy Yahiko on the other side of the room and asked him to change the water. She could feel his breath on her hand that she put a little longer on Sano's forehead.

"Get well soon, _Baka_."


End file.
